Device for the controlled feeding of cigarettes or similar rod-shaped articles



April 7, 1964 A SCHMERMUND 3,127,971

DEVICE FOR THE CbNTROLLED FEEDING 0F CIGARETTES OR SIMILAR ROD-SHAPED ARTICLES Filed May 16, 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet l I n Den (0 r 1.75 m Saw/:0! 0

Attorneys A. SCHMERMUND 3,127,971 DEVICE FOR THE CONTROLLED FEEDING OF CIGARETTES April 7, 1964 OR SIMILAR ROD-SHAPED ARTICLES 2 Sheets$heet 2 Filed May 16, 1961 005 I 0 O3 2 I A l 2 MW. m 2 2 H m 2, 7/ M/P ti F A a W1 4 m 2 m 8 ny By fl/a/zE Maj/Mfr Attorneys United States Patent DEVICE FOR THE CONTROLLED FEEDING 0F CIGARETTES 0R SIMILAR RQD-SHAPED ARTlCLES Alfred Schmerinund, 62 Kornerstrasse, Gevelsherg, Westphalia, Germany Filed May 16, 1961, Ser. No. 119,407 Glaims priority, application Germany May 23, 1960 p 4 Claims. (Cl. 193-414) The invention relates to a device for the controlled feeding of cigarettes or similar rod-shaped articles to a handling station.

It has been previously proposed to provide such a device, comprising a chute assembly arranged below a supply hopper for the articles, the chute assembly having a plurality of chutes which are arranged in a fan-like formation at an upper part of the chute assembly and which merge into a parallel vertical formation at a lower part of the chute assembly, a fully or oscillatably rotatable roller being arranged above each of the walls which separate adjacent chutes from each other and above each of the two outer walls of the assembly, for agitating the articles in the hopper and thereby assisting a free flow of said articles to the chutes.

In the previously proposed device the intermediate walls separating the chutes have a thickness at the top, which is determined by the roller diameter, and taper throughout their lengths to thinned down separating walls below on which, partly angularly arranged, lower thin separation plates defining the exit from the chute assembly adjoin, which extend vertically parallel to each other. The manufacture of these separating walls which are tapered and extend over varying lengths is difficult and expensive.

It is an object of the invention to avoid the use of intermediate walls tapering throughout their lengths for separating the chutes.

It is another object of the invention to enable the use of walls having flat parallel faces which can be easily ground to an advantageous degree of smoothness.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a chute assembly for the feed of cigarettes or similar rodshaped articles from a supply hopper to a handling station, walls of said chute assembly in an upper fanshaped region thereof having a uniform wall thickness, lower ends of the walls being bevelled in such manner that thereby vertical support faces for thin metal plates are obtained, the thin metal plates forming separating walls of the chute exits.

These and other objects of the invention will become apparent from the following description given by way of example and referring to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a side view of a cigarette feeding device, partly broken away and sectioned along the line 1-1 of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the device along the line 11-11 of FIG. 1.

The device illustrated comprises a cigarette supply hopper formed by walls 8, 9, 22 and 23, upper and lower roof members 31 and 39 being provided in the supply hopper in known manner. Cigarette feed rollers 29 are provided, in the supply hopper, the rollers 22 being driven from a drive not shown but known per se by means of spur wheels 25 and 26 arranged in a gear housing having bottom and top walls 24 and a side wall 27. Below the supply hopper, a chute assembly is provided, the assembly having chutes defined by plates 4, 5, 7 and 35 and wall members 6. Agitating rollers 1 are arranged over the upper ends of the wall members 4, 5, 7 and 35,

the rollers 1 being mounted in bearings 18 and 2t), and being fixed to pinions 2 which are placed in to and fro rotary movement by means of a rack rod 3 which is oscillatably mounted in bearings 17 and 19 and connected to a flexible bellows 16. The plates 4, 5, 7 and 35 and wall members 6 are held by mounting plates 11 to Which angle members 12 are fixed, and by two bearing bars 21 one of which is secured to an angle member 34 at one side of the device and the other of which is secured to the bearing 2%). The chutes are covered at the sides by cover plates 10. The outer plate 7 is shorter than the other outer plate 5 in order to allow the entry of a ram 32 used for pushing the cigarettes into a compact group. A removal member 36 is provided, which operates in and is guided by a slot 15 of a feed table 14 and extends upwards from the slot 15 for moving cigarettes away from a handling station at the bottom of the chutes after the required number of cigarettes has been collected thereat. The detailed construction, drive and operation of the removal member 36 are well known in the art and are believed not to require further explanation.

From the drawings, it will be seen that plates 4, 5, 7 and 35 have plane-parallel faces. The chute assembly comprises two chute arrangements which are symmetrical to each other with respect to a vertical plane d of symmetry passing through the supply hopper. The plates at each side of the plane d of symmetry, that is to say the plates of each chute arrangement, are mounted at equal distances one from the next with the planeparallel faces being inclined at equal angles relatively to said plane d of symmetry. Each plate at its lower end, which is remote from the supply hopper, has a surface parallel to and facing the plane d of symmetry. The Wall members 6 each extend from one of said surfaces downwards and are parallel to the plane d of symmetry. Thereby, first chute portions a of one of the chute arrangements (at the left hand side of the plane d of symmetry in FIG. 1) and first chute portions b of the other chute arrangement are formed, the first chute portions a and b being inclined in opposite senses to the plane d of symmetry and merge into second chute portions 0 which are parallel to the plane d of symmetry and are formed between adjacent wall members 6. The plates 35 are arranged between the plane d of symmetry and the adjacent plates 4 of both chute arrangements, each of the plates 35 having two plane non-parallel surfaces one of which is parallel to the plane d of symmetry and the other is parallel to the plane-parallel surfaces of the adjacent plate 4. Thereby three further chutes d are formed. It will be seen that, although the plates 4, 5 and 7 are plane-parallel plates, the first chute portions a and b are fanning outwards in the direction towards the supply hopper. It will also be seen that the plates decrease in length towards the plane d of symmetry.

The device operates as follows:

The supply hopper formed by walls 8, 9, 22 and 23 is kept full of cigarettes and the rollers 29 are caused to slowly rotate in the direction of the arrows, by driving the shaft 28 from driving means not illustrated. The cigarettes lying on the rollers 29 receive an upward push from the rollers 29, whereby at the narrow places between the rollers 29 and the walls 8 and 9, a bridge formation is avoided. The space below the rollers 29 and the roof member 30 is thus to a great extent pressure free. Aided by the to and fro rotation of the rollers 1, the cigarettes are fed into the chutes, from which they are fed in constant succession, according to the speed of their removal by the removal member 36, the cigarettes being fed by the removal member 36 in the direction of the arrow shown in FIG. 2.

In an example of the operation of the device 450 cigarettes pass through each individual chute per minute, the total rate of cigarette feed with a machine having two feeding devices thus amounting to about 6300 cigarettes per minute.

Modifications, omissions and additions to the specific embodiment described are possible without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

I claim:

1. In and for a device for feeding cigarettes and similar rod-shaped articles from a supply hopper therefor to a handling station, a chute arrangement adapted to be positioned between said supply hopper and said handling station, the chute arrangement comprising a plurality of plates having fiat plane-parallel faces, means mounting said plates at equal distances one from the next with the plane-parallel faces of each plate parallel to those of the others to form first chute portions between parallel faces of adjacent plates, said plane-parallel faces and thus, said first chute portions being inclined at equal angles relatively to a vertical plane, each plate at its end remote from said supply hopper having a flat surface parallel to and facing said vertical plane, and a plurality of flat wall members, eachwall member extending from a respective one of said fiat surfaces in the direction away from said supply hopper, said wall members being parallel to said vertical plane to form second chute portions between adjacent wall members, said second chute portions being parallel to said vertical plane, said first chute portions merging into said second chute portions.

2. In and for a device for feeding cigarettes and similar rod-shaped articles from a supply hopper therefor to a handling station, a chute assembly comprising a first chute arrangement, and a second chute arrangement, said first and second chute arrangements being adapted to be positioned between said supply hopper and said handling station, each chute arrangement comprising a plurality of plates having iiat plane-parallel faces, means mounting said plates at equal distances one from the next with the plane-parallel faces of each plate parallel to those of the others to form first chute portions between parallel faces of adjacent plates, said plane-parallel faces and thus said first chute portions being inclined at equal angles relatively to a vertical plane, each plate at its end remote from said supply hopper having a flat surface parallel to and facing said vertical plane, and a plurality of fiat wall members, each wall member extending from a respective one of said flat surfaces in the direction away from said supply hopper, said wall members being parallel to said vertical plane to form second chute portions between adjacent wall members, said second chute portions being parallel to said vertical plane, said first chute portions merging into said second chute portions, said first chute arrangement being provided at one side of a vertical plane of symmetry and said second chute arrangement being provided at the opposite side of said plane of symmetry, the plane-parallel surfaces of the plates of said first chute arrangement being inclined 4 relatively to said plane of symmetry at the same angles as, but in a sense opposite to that of the plane-parallel faces of the plates of said second chute arrangement, the two chute arrangements diverging in the direction towards the supply hopper.

3. In and for a device for feeding cigarettes and similar rod-shaped articles from a supply hopper therefor to a handling station, a chute assembly comprising two chute arrangements adapted to be positioned between said supply hopper and said handling station, each chute arrangement comprising a plurality of plates having planeparallel faces, means mounting said plates at equal distances one from the next with the plane-parallel faces of each plate parallel to those of the others, said planeparallel faces being inclined at equal angles relatively to a vertical plane, each plate at its end remote from said supply hopper having a surface parallel to and facing said vertical plane, and a plurality of fiat wall members. each wall member extending from a respective one of said surfaces in the direction away from said supply hopper, said wall members being parallel to said vertical plane, whereby first chute portions inclined to said vertical plane are formed between parallel faces of adjacent plates, said first chute portions merging into second chute portions parallel to said plane and formed between adjacent wall members, one of said chute arrangements being provided at one side of a vertical plane of symmetry and the other chute arrangement being provided at the opposite side of said plane of symmetry, the planeparallel surfaces of the plates of said one chute arrangement being inclined relatively to said plane of symmetry at the same angles as, but in a sense opposite to that of the plane-parallel faces of the plates of said other chute arrangement, the two chute arrangements diverging in the direction towards the supply hopper, said chute assembly further comprising two additional plates between said plane of symmetry and the adjacent plates of the two chute arrangements, each of the two additional plates having two plane non-parallel surfaces, one of said non-parallel surfaces being parallel to said plane of symmetry and the other of said non-parallel surfaces being parallel to the plane-parallel surfaces of the adjacent plate.

4. A chute assembly as defined in claim 3, wherein the plates of each chute arrangement are of different lengths, the lengths increasing outwardly from the plane of symmetry.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,765,820 Bronander et a1. June 24, 1930 2,284,975 Horner June 2, 1942 2,809,768 Pollmann et al. Oct. 15, 1957 FOREIGN PATENTS 22,838 Netherlands Oct. 15, 1930 

1. IN AND FOR A DEVICE FOR FEEDING CIGARETTES AND SIMILAR ROD-SHAPED ARTICLES FROM A SUPPLY HOPPER THEREFOR TO A HANDLING STATION, A CHUTE ARRANGEMENT ADAPTED TO BE POSITIONED BETWEEN SAID SUPPLY HOPPER AND SAID HANDLING STATION, THE CHUTE ARRANGEMENT COMPRISING A PLURALITY OF PLATES HAVING FLAT PLANE-PARALLEL FACES, MEANS MOUNTING SAID PLATES AT EQUAL DISTANCES ONE FROM THE NEXT WITH THE PLANE-PARALLEL FACES OF EACH PLATE PARALLEL TO THOSE OF THE OTHERS TO FORM FIRST CHUTE PORTIONS BETWEEN PARALLEL FACES OF ADJACENT PLATES, SAID PLANE-PARALLEL FACES AND THUS SAID FIRST CHUTE PORTIONS BEING INCLINED AT EQUAL ANGLES RELATIVELY TO A VERTICAL PLANE, EACH PLATE AT ITS END REMOTE FROM SAID SUPPLY HOPPER HAVING A FLAT SURFACE PARALLEL TO AND FACING SAID VERTICAL PLANE, AND A PLURALITY OF FLAT WALL MEMBERS, EACH WALL MEMBER EXTENDING FROM A RESPECTIVE ONE OF SAID FLAT SURFACES IN THE DIRECTION AWAY FROM SAID SUPPLY HOPPER, SAID WALL MEMBERS BEING PARALLEL TO SAID VERTICAL PLANE TO FORM SECOND CHUTE PORTIONS BETWEEN ADJACENT WALL MEMBERS, SAID SECOND CHUTE PORTIONS BEING PARALLEL TO SAID VERTICAL PLANE, SAID FIRST CHUTE PORTIONS MERGING INTO SAID SECOND CHUTE PORTIONS. 